The arsenic survey was carried out to assess the pervasiveness as well as the awareness of arsenic problems in Bangladesh. The specific objectives of the survey were to ascertain (a) the coverage of tube-well as source of water for rural households, (b) reasons for installing tube-wells, (c) the extent of rural areas/households affected by arsenic in tube-well water, (d) the proportion of rural people aware of arsenic problems and/or of illnesses caused by arsenic in tube-well water, and (e) the measures that are taken to prevent/remedy arsenic contamination in tube-well water.

The survey was done over a sub-sample of the 1996/97 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS). Data for the survey were collected by interviewing 1,890 female respondents and 1,890 male respondents from 3,780 households spread over the country’s 6 divisions. The survey was commissioned by the Australian National University (ANU) and financed by the Aus-AID.